Glazes are widely used for coating ceramics in various industries. Glazes are generally used to color, decorate, strengthen and waterproof the ceramics. The glazes also exhibit properties of excellent scratch resistance and glossiness.
Generally, the glazes are prepared using raw materials such as, but not limited to, silica, zircon, kaolin, feldspar, dolomite, magnesium carbonate, boric acid and potassium nitrate in an industrial grade. A selected set of raw materials are thoroughly mixed and melted in a furnace with a very high temperature to prepare molten raw materials. The molten raw materials are poured into water to obtain glass frits. The glass frits are ground in a mill, which are then used as glazes. These glazes are applied on ceramic bodies and fired at high temperature to obtain glazed ceramic bodies. The temperature used for firing and melting the raw materials are very high and consumes high amount of energy. Further, the glazes produced using conventional methods exhibit only few desired mechanical and chemical properties.
Additionally, industrial wastes such as pozzolanic wastes, fly ash, limestone mining tailings, etc are immobilized by disposal in land-fills or immobilized in cement industries. Handling and disposal of such industrial waste may require additional cost and is also hazardous to the environment.
Therefore, there is a need to develop a method for manufacturing glass ceramic glazes which is environment friendly, cost effective and has superior mechanical and chemical properties.